Garth F. Bailey, of Pembroke Pines, pleaded no contest to manslaughter in 1988 for shooting his girlfriend in the head while she cooked breakfast.
Eight years later, the state of Florida gave him a license to carry a gun.

John P. Paxton Jr., then of Deerfield Beach, pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse in 1993 for grabbing his 4-year-old nephew by the neck, choking and slapping him for flicking the lights on and off.
Eight years later, the state gave him a license to carry a gun.

John M. Corporal, of Lake Worth, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in 1998 for pulling a chrome revolver from his waistband and placing it against his roommate's head during an argument. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to grand theft.
In February 2006, the state gave him a license to carry a gun.

In an investigation of the state's concealed weapon system, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found those licensed to carry guns in the first half of 2006 included:

• More than 1,400 people who pleaded guilty or no contest to felonies but qualified because of a loophole in the law.
• 216 people with outstanding warrants, including a Tampa pizza deliveryman wanted since 2002 for fatally shooting a 15-year-old boy over a stolen order of chicken wings.
• 128 people with active domestic violence injunctions against them, including a Hallandale man who was ordered by a judge to stay away from his former son-in-law after pulling a handgun out of his pocket and telling the man: "I'll blow you away, you son of a b----."
• Six registered sex offenders.